Begging Please
by DeadlyGodiva
Summary: When is a screw-up too big to forgive? Connor thinks he is about to find out, but Angel has other ideas. A free and fluffy family story with my oh so common theme of c/p as usual, so be aware, and don't say I didn't warn you.


Begging Please

Disclaimer: Merely an idea I put in words.

Author's Note: This has been sitting in my old files for years now. I forget now why I wrote it, it's not based on anything from the show or cannon, but it's simple fluffy goodness and I came across it earlier during one of my searches of late, so I decided to go ahead and post it.

* * *

"Daddy...?"

Oh this was going to be good.

Connor Galen Angel had called his father more names than he could honestly count over time; half of which were actually worth repeating without need of censorship.

But when it came to _Daddy_?

No…

That title only got touted when the boy felt the need to lower the man's defenses and hopefully spare himself some pain in the nearby future, both literally and figuratively.

Just in that single word he could hear anxiousness, fear, and dread, which made him both nervous and highly suspicious.

Clearly the child was no dummy, he'd long since proven that, and his astute ability to know when his very quality of life was on the line was definitely coming into play here.

"Daddy, I want you to promise that you won't start yelling at me until I've finished telling you everything."

Another _Daddy_ in less than thirty seconds, partnered along with that request and the man on the opposite end of the phone line closed his eyes jadedly.

There were but two directions the boy could decide to go in now.

It was either going to be, "Daddy, I know I screwed up badly, but I'm your baby, and you love me, and I'm really, truly, honest to God, sorry", or option B, which was, "Daddy, please please please please don't kill me, please".

Angel was getting the sense that his child's petitions lay more so in the latter category.

And he had a pretty good, make that _very _good idea as to why that was.

"Connor Galen Angel-"

Hearing a halted breath taken through the receiver's ear piece, he paused for a second.

So—so many thoughts ran through the man's mind.

So many questions he wanted to ask.

But he decided most could wait till later, for all he wanted to know at that precise moment in time were two things.

"Where in the hell are you, and is my car okay?"

The boy was taking an awfully long time to answer.

Too long.

"Did you hear me?"

"Yes…"

"Any intention to answer me then?"

"Umm…"

Well that didn't bode well for the situation at all.

"Umm? Why is there an 'umm' coming from you Connor Galen? I want answers, not 'umms'."

"Well—"

"Well…? Well what!"

"Daddy, you're yelling..."

"I am not—"

Taking his time to breathe out, seeking some semblance of calm, he fought to keep his tone of voice composed and direct.

"I am not yelling Connor, you would know if I was yelling. This—! This is me yelling! …Now, if you don't want me to do that again, for real this time, I suggest you stop stalling and actually tell me something about your and my car's current location."

"Locations…"

"What was that?"

Finding a jagged crack in the pavement in front of him pretty fascinating, the teen tried to wedge the top of his sneaker down into it.

"Connor, silence is not your friend right now."

Biting back a feeble moan, the boy leaned up against the dingy and dirty glass of the payphone booth.

"I— well I think—"

Truthfully having no idea where he was, he tried to recall the last highway sign he'd seen.

"I—I know I'm somewhere outside of L.A…"

"Oh yeah...?"

Free hand balling up into a taunt fist, the vampire nearly hissed at his son.

"Thanks so much for the update, because I just hadn't really _noticed that little fact yet_!"

Jumping, troubled, at the booming volume his father used, Connor promptly tried to defuse him.

"Daddy I mean—I don't actually know—where I am…exactly."

As a tight ball of stressed nerves began to form in the base of the man's brain stem, he blinked slowly.

"You don't—don't know...?"

"Uh-uh…"

"Then why don't you drive some place so that you_ can_ find out where Connor?"

"Uhh…"

"I do not like that Connor, I do not like that at all. Do not 'uhh' me. Not about my car."

"Daddy, just—"

"My car, Connor, it is with you, isn't it?"

"It was…"

"_**WAS**_!"

"Daddy you're yelling!"

"You're damn right I'm yelling! Did you lose it?"

"No!"

"But it's not with you?"

"Well, no, but—"

"So then you _**LOST IT**_!"

"Daddy I didn't!"

"Then where is it, and you better tell me quick little boy."

"I—I really can't…"

"Connor."

Hearing a deathly, ice-cold pitch settling in over his name as his father spoke it, the child desperately fought to keep from crying.

"I—Daddy I didn't lose it— I swear, it was—it got stolen…"

Mouth open but no words forthcoming, the man went completely silent.

"Daddy…?"

No reply coming in turn terrified the lad and so he started to speak a mile a minute in hopes of saving himself from an even greater fate worse than death.

"Daddy just— just don't freak out on me, alright? I've been looking for it, and no, I haven't called the police yet because I knew if I did they'd—well I'd be in more trouble, and so I figured that it would be pretty easy to find the car by myself anyway, you know. But it's taking a little longer than I thought it might, and my wallet and bag were in the car so I—I…"

"No money means no way of going about getting necessities for yourself, such as a place to sleep or food to eat, so you had no other choice left but to cut your little _adventure_ short and call me up to ask me to come and pull your butt out of the fire."

Eyes stinging, the teen pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and said nothing.

As the vampire suddenly looked as old as his actual age on paper, his words spoken sounded weighty and drained.

"How much do you still have left on you?"

"Daddy, I swear I never—"

"How much Connor?"

Dropping his head, crushed, the young man whispered his answer.

"A buck fifty, since I had to make this call…"

"Here's what I want you to do. Find out where, in exact latitude and longitude if at all possible, you are, however you have to, then call me back and I will come get you."

"Wh—what about—about your car...?"

"We'll worry about it later. Did you get all of what I told you just now?"

"Yes sir…"

"Good."

Going to hang up the phone, seeing as he assumed there was nothing more to be said between them, Connor almost missed his father speaking out yet again.

"Connor?"

Gasping and nearly dropping the grimy phone in his haste to bring it back up to his ear, the child responded back in a hurry.

"Yes Daddy?"

"Stay safe, and I love you."

A few silent tears ran down the boy's shamed red cheeks and he nodded.

"I will—and I love you too...bye Daddy."

"Goodbye Connor."

Clicking the hand held device off, the man rubbed at seizing lobes and willed himself to remember that soon this would all be over and done with.

* * *

Sitting on a public city bench under a dimly lit street light, he kept one eye out for the rental his father had acquired to make the trip in while also paying close attention to his hands.

He couldn't keep them still as he was barely able to remain seated even.

The tension building within him as he waited was consuming his frightened mind and causing him to think up all the different ways he might be greeted.

From envisioning his father with an foreboding, icy glare and barked orders, to seeing himself being taken over a paternal knee right out in the open air for all to see, getting a spanking to end all spankings, the boy fretted and worried himself to the point that he started chewing on a fingernail, a bad habit he hadn't indulged in months.

A dark red sedan pulled up as Connor sat wondering and panicking.

Shutting off the engine and climbing out, the driver peered at him across the way.

"Ready to go home?"

Head up just as soon as the first word was spoken, the child looked at the man he hadn't seen for nearly four days and tears brimmed in his contrite, baby blue eyes as he got to his feet.

"Daddy…"

It didn't matter that he was in more trouble than he ever had been before, facing the biggest, and longest, punishment he'd ever gotten.

It also didn't matter that he was seventeen and a half years old since two Thursdays ago and was, technically, "too old" to be acting in such a juvenile, childish manner.

His want was simple and pure.

He wanted his Daddy.

And he got him.

Arms outstretched to him, ready to catch the running figure, the vampire stooped some and was rewarded with a clingy, weeping teenager one second later.

"Daddy I am so sorry!"

Burying his face down into the leather duster his father always wore, the boy choked on a sob as he was overwhelmed with the familiar smells that surrounded the man, smells that meant home and told him he was home again.

Nodding, Angel held him tightly as he tried to comfort his child who was currently hell bent on getting as close to him as humanly possible without actually clawing his way inside his skin.

"I know Conman…"

Standing there, an odd pair for sure, the vampire shut his eyes as his entire being relished the weight of his son in his embrace, cradling the boy as if he was the most delicate, priceless thing in the entire world.

And to him, he was.

He didn't move once, not even with arms gripping his neck so if he had needed to breathe it would have been quite difficult to do.

Angel allowed the boy time, and himself as well, to settle.

Of course he was going to tan Connor's backend like it'd never been tanned before once they got home.

And obviously he'd been put through the wringer while the child had been gone; feeling every single emotion a person and parent especially could, with some emotions felt more than once in some cases.

But for now none of it mattered, and he kissed the top of honey brown locks belonging to the quaking form grasping at him frantically, assuring the boy he was not going anywhere, not without him in tow.

"Daddy I never me—meant for any of this to hap—happen…"

All too aware that his words, stammered and stuttered badly, didn't do very much in lessening his actions and all that had come about because of them, he still had to say something.

Never had he felt such heavy guilt and remorse over something he'd done before.

It was a whole new experience for Connor, and not one he particularly liked to tell the truth, or cared to ever repeat.

Decisively gripping his son by his slender arms, Angel had to virtually force the youngster away from his chest to be able to look down at him clearly.

"Are you alright?"

Trying to stop his breathtaking sobs long enough to respond, he dealt with a runny nose as well with the cuff of his shirt sleeve.

"Ye—yes—yes sir…"

"Yeah, you sure?"

Giving the boy a quick once over, the man deemed for himself that his child wasn't so bad off, just extremely tired, hungry, and silently petrified of all that was sure to be coming his way shortly.

"Come on…"

Wrapping one burly arm around the child's sagging shoulders, Angel supported his slight, weary frame as Connor leaned against him.

"We'll get you something to eat, and then head on home, okay?"

"Okay…"

Agreeing with the plan before making one more pass at his dripping nose, the teen then encircled his father's wide and solid torso as far as he could reach, eyes closed as he took full advantage of the vampire's free offering of comfort and refuge.

Now that he knew what it was like to be without his father's love and care for a measure of time, he never intended to feel that lonely and abandoned, again, not by choice.

* * *

tbc...


End file.
